The role of orienting task and field dependence/independence in incidental learning was explored in the present study. 56 students read discursive text for acquisition of content or for detection of typographical errors. Incidental items were instances of objects, names, and numbers. Content reading produced more incidental learning, and field-dependents exceeded independents in incidental learning only on the cover task of content reading. Also, the retention level of incidental material after 21 days was substantial. Variation in attentional set was suggested as an important factor in incidental learning.
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